What is Yahoo Gemini?

Jul 15th 2016

What is Yahoo Gemini?

Is Yahoo Gemini The Next Advertising Platform For Your Business?

Good marketers are always on the lookout for new platforms and opportunities to reach a wider audience – and this adage is doubly true for digital marketers.

In terms of digital advertising, Adwords is a universal constant, Bing is a second thought and social is an emerging power. In a market that seems over saturated as it is, Yahoo is looking to carve out their own corner of this billion dollar industry.

Yahoo and Bing agreed to a partnership in 2009 which accounts for roughly 33% of internet search volume in the US. While this agreement is still in effect, in February 2014, Yahoo launched Gemini – and advertising platform which reaches only Yahoo users opposed to both Yahoo and Bing.

So why would you use Yahoo Gemini?

The Upside

While it may not be the first platform you look at, there are some notable upsides to using Gemini.

According to a user index done by Further Strategic Digital Marketing, Yahoo users are more likely to be:

  • older
  • women
  • sports fans
  • pet lovers
  • using Safari, Internet Explorer, or Firefox.


Depending on the demographic you’re targeting, Gemini could bring in leads of a higher quality than Adwords or Bing.  With Yahoo you’ll reach about 12.5% of the internet search market share, while that’s far from a majority, 12% of internet users is still a powerful number of people.

Another point that Yahoo has tried to drive home is the native integration of Gemini. Yahoo has essentially eliminated traditional advertising on their sites, meaning that the only way to advertise through Yahoo is to either appear as an ad on the SERP or to show native ads in their scroll.

Early numbers indicate that users on Yahoo.com being served Gemini Ads tend to convert slightly worse than Bind Ads on desktop … but conversions are significantly better on tablet and phone, according to this report by Search  Engine Land.
Prooffix

Lastly, due to the nature of a newer platform, competition for keywords is likely to be low, though it’s hard to know specific prices without a keyword tool. Granted if you’re using “Auto Insurance” as your keyword, you’re still going to pay through the nose – but there are many smaller niches that haven’t been saturated as they have been on more established platforms.

The Downside

Obviously, there are some drawbacks of using Gemini as part of your new marketing strategy. Search traffic is substantially lower with Google, Bing, and Yahoo coming in at 65%, 21%, and 12.5% respectively. On top of that, the existing Search Alliance between Bing and Yahoo allows for both to show ads on Yahoo search. Therefore if you are running Bing Ads you are still reaching many Yahoo searchers, however Gemini ads are not showing on Bing’s search page.

The Verdict

Yahoo Gemini has potential, but a lot of room to grow. With the limited reach and overlapping platforms, Gemini could be helpful for larger organizations that have fully saturated the remaining options. I would recommend that until you have full Adwords, Bing, and social saturation, steer clear of Yahoo.

However, if you have solid campaigns in AdWords and Bing Ads, want to target Yahoo-friendly demographics, and have the website support to convert well on mobile, Gemini could be a slam dunk! Get out there and give it a try.

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